AMP

AMP will reduce the headcount across its superannuation and North platform businesses and press ahead with changes to its redundancy policies even as the Finance Sector Union warns that “staff deserve better”.

The three-way tie-up highlights just how much the power dynamic has shifted across the advice landscape over the last decade, with advice ownership groups arguably superceding licensees in the pecking order.

By reneging on long-standing employment deals, AMP has again given the impression that it has welched on an existing agreement once it realised the deal wouldn’t work out in its favour. Do that repeatedly and people stop wanting to do business with you.

AMP has cut redundancy pay maximums and notice periods in a move that has left long-term employees dismayed after they stuck with the company through the royal commission and its aftermath.

Advisers won the case against a well-armed opponent and can move on with more financial parity, while AMP’s shareholders and executives can put a long-overdue cap on the damage caused by this at-times acrimonious dispute.

AMP’s executive spine has done a remarkable job of arresting the company’s decline, but its refusal to accept the court’s decision that it shortchanged advisers on BOLR deals is an egregious misstep that could put its trust account with those advisers back in the red.

Brokerages raising their target price on Nvidia shares this month have pushed the median view to US$500, and analysts say that may be conservative. After an impressive earnings report, hedge funds and others are piling into the chip maker even as high bond yields threaten tech stocks.

Recently released wages data increases the likelihood the RBA will pause its rate hiking campaign for the near term, economists say. A soft landing for the economy is far from guaranteed, but the runway is getting clearer.

The Financial Services Council commissioned the Retirement Income Policy Roadmap to help the superannuation system put greater emphasis on the drawdown phase. Industry leaders say the biggest hurdle is a deeply entrenched fear of running out of money.

Corporate profit growth is expected to moderate, especially in sectors focused on consumer sales, and mining companies have seen large downgrades. Meanwhile, markets are still not fully pricing in the high risk of recession, some analysts say.